A Quiet Night
by Addict to Fanfics
Summary: A night out chasing down suspects and laughing against back-alley walls was all well and good but sometimes a quiet night in was just as good a cure for missing the war.
1. A quiet night

_AN: Just saying this piece is Not connected to Night despite the title. I do have a continuing piece for Night but I have no idea when I'll get around to finishing it. With how little motivation I have for writing it'll probably take till Halloween, especially since I've picked up a second job recently so my free time is pretty much nil._

* * *

"Haven't eaten in a while." John said as he sat reading the newspaper is his chair. He was seemingly talking to himself as he flipped another page of the paper. "Maybe a new Chinese place. I could look at the door handle and try to pick a good one from that." He flipped down the top edge of his paper to peer over it. "You'll have to come of course, to tell me I'm completely wrong and lead us in the right direction away from possible food poisoning."

"Not eating. Case."

John only rolled his eyes at the limp figure laying on the couch that had answered him and raised the paper once more. "You finished the case hours ago. Worked it out easy enough. You're just holding out to bother Greg again." He could practically feel the dissecting glare raking over him through the paper he held up, trying to figure out how he'd known it was solved.

John casually flipped another page ignoring the glare that practically demanded he explain immediately or suffer body parts in unmentionable places. That is to say, he'd be finding other peoples body parts hidden about the flat in varying states of decay. "You come and actually eat and I'll tell you how I figured it out." He flipped the paper down again to meet Sherlock's eyes. "Deal?"

Sherlock's eyes narrowed, trying to stare him down to get an answer before seemingly relenting and looking away, rolling to face the back of the couch. "No."

Or maybe not relenting. John stared at Sherlock's back trying to figure out why he'd declined. He'd known Sherlock had solved the case so what reason did he have to decline? The voice that came from the couch was slightly muffled by the cushions but still easily distinguishable as Sherlock's bored you-should-have-thought-of-this-yourself tone. "We'll have to order in. Lestrade will be by later anyway no doubt and he becomes ever so unpleasant when he has to track me down." Sherlock tilted his head back to peer over his shoulder at John. "You _will_ tell me how you knew."

John smiled. "Of course." Sherlock had basically agreed to eat so it was all fine. He had hoped to be going out because he didn't feel up to cooking and the cleanup that came with it but eating delivery after the running they'd done sounded just as good.

Putting the newspaper aside having long since finished reading it and no longer needed to affect hiding behind it John got up to find one of their mobiles to make the order before Sherlock changed his mind on the idea of eating. The adrenaline rush that came with following Sherlock on one of his mad dashes and the occasional dealings with the British Government were all well and good to cure a limp and a tremor in the heat of the moment but the rush wasn't all he had missed of the war. Nights sitting chatting with friends and comrades who understood the battlefield were in short supply after he'd been invalided home. Maybe London wasn't a battlefield in the true sense of the war he'd left but like Mycroft Holmes had said about running with Sherlock when they'd only just met, _welcome back. _It was a battlefield nonetheless. He still missed the war occasionally but if he had to be elsewhere he was glad 221B was where he'd ended up. He wouldn't trade his days of running and his nights of debates and explanations for another chance at the war if it were offered, even if this war came with mid-night violin practices on occasion and bio-hazards in with the food.

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02/23/14, 022714, 042914


	2. Not so quiet night

**I did mark this complete with just ch1**. It was supposed to be a little focus on comradery between them reminding John of the war outside the 'action'. I hadn't planned on continuing it but someone asked how John knew the case was solved so...

* * *

A short phone call later and it was a waiting game for the food to arrive hopefully a decent time before Lestrade did. Despite the fact that Sherlock had basically agreed to eat that night Lestrade showing up and demanding a reveal would know doubt be used as an excuse to skip eating in favor of calling the Yard idiots. It was also a waiting game for how long his resolve would last. Granted he'd stated he knew Sherlock had solved the case and Sherlock had confirmed its solved state in not so many words but once they started eating he'd have to explain his reasoning. It wasn't something he was looking forward to.

Really, he wasn't looking forward to it _at all_. No doubt Sherlock would be waiting for some clever insight that had allowed John to solve the case and so Sherlock had to have solved it prior to him or a reveal of a tell Sherlock didn't know he had, that he would of course remedy. In truth it wasn't anything so interesting. Rather it was a bunch of little things that registered as insignificant on their own and finally clicked together as a whole. A guess more than anything but one that had panned out when Sherlock had confirmed it himself. He smirked a little thinking about it. Sherlock wouldn't be happy to know he'd fallen for it and given John the confirmation he'd wanted by his own words.

The paper may have been a shield to show indifference but it was also to help hide any tells he may have given about his uncertainty. Even now Sherlock's staring at him was somewhat disconcerting despite his being used to Sherlock laser-like focus. All he had to do was keep it from Sherlock till the food arrived; once it was there Sherlock wouldn't have an excuse to renege on eating in order to get his explanation, even if the explanation would be less interesting than he'd hoped.

"You lied. You didn't know." Damn. That's what he got for thinking on it too much.

He prevaricated. "Not 100% sure. Though you did give me confirmation I was hoping for on my suspicions. Ta for that by the way." Hopefully that would get Sherlock focused on having given himself away rather than on how John picked it up in the first place.

"You only suspected and I gave the game away." He sounded almost awed at being tricked, a little giddy at the thought that John had pulled one over on him and given him a new puzzle so quickly after he'd finished the last. John could work with that angle.

"Well weren't you the one who said people love telling you '_you're wrong'_? Either my train of thought was wrong and you'd tell me as much or you'd give me the confirmation I was right." John grinned. "I have to say though it's a lot more fun being on the other side of one of your tricks." And didn't that get him a sour look before Sherlock flashed a grin at him too.

"Hmm, maybe we can work on that." _Work on what?_

"Work on what now, filling me in when you plan on pulling your tricks? Ta for that, it'd be nice to know when you're going to go haring off on some mad scheme when I'm trailing in your wake." Running beside Sherlock might be a load of fun but scrabbling for coattails when it went sour he could do without.

"Don't be absurd. There's hardly ever time for that. No. No, you're no genius but obviously some of the things I've said have sunk in. I can work with that. Teach you a few of my 'tricks' as you like to call them. I can't wait to see there faces when you use some of my methods. Oh, the Yard is going to be positively green."

Green with envy or ill at the thought of there being 'two' of Sherlock? John wasn't sure which his friend thought he was referencing but maybe he was right and it'd be good for a laugh. Besides he'd always wanted to know how a few of Sherlock's methods worked and having him prattle on about them would distract Sherlock from the fact that he'd been outmaneuvered with the last case's conclusion. So much for his quiet night though.

* * *

Alright,** it's done for good now**. The long and short of it being he didn't know but tricked Sherlock into admitting whether he'd solved it or not. Not much of an explanation but bluffing seems like something John'd try to pull and Sherlock always wants things to be elaborate so he'd fall for it being more than it was. And it's all I had in mind and two jobs doesn't really give much time for writing. I'm still going to try to keep writing but please don't hold your breath waiting for pieces. I've few enough readers without you people passing out from lack of air.

04/30/14, 052314


End file.
